the.com/tyranny of the majority

means A situation in democratic systems where the majority can use their numbers to override, suppress, or harm the interests of minority groups, all through perfectly legal means.

from The phrase emerged in political philosophy discussions around the late 18th and 19th centuries, most famously examined by Alexis de Tocqueville in 'Democracy in America' and John Stuart Mill in 'On Liberty.' Both writers worried that democracy's great promise — rule by the people — carried a hidden flaw: numbers alone don't guarantee justice. 'Majority' comes from Latin 'maior,' meaning 'greater,' while 'tyranny' traces back to Greek 'tyrannos,' originally just meaning an absolute ruler, not necessarily a cruel one, though the word curdled over time to mean oppressive power. Stitching the two together created a deliberate paradox: tyranny, once the mark of a single despot, relocated into the voting booth itself.